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Field of Fire (episode)
After several DS9 crew members are murdered, Ezri summons the memories and personality of Joran Dax to help her find the murderer. Summary Several of the senior staff are gathered in Quark's Bar, toasting one young lieutenant Hector Ilario for his excellent performance at the Defiant's helm in a recent battle. Eventually, the party winds down, and the (drunk) young lieutenant is escorted to his quarters by Ezri. The next morning, he is discovered dead in his quarters, having been shot through the heart. Perplexingly, there is no evidence of a forced entry, nor of any entry at all. Even more mysterious is the fact that he was killed, at close range, with a projectile weapon rather than a directed energy weapon such as a phaser or disruptor. The tritanium bullet is matched to a Federation prototype TR-116 rifle, which was never mass-produced, having been abandoned in favor of regenerative phasers. The rifle's replicator pattern, disturbingly, is only available to Starfleet officers. Drawing on his knowledge of 20th century crime novels, Odo notes that there are no powder burns on the body, suggesting that the shot was fired from a longer range. Ezri is deeply disturbed by her memories of being Joran Dax, who murdered three people, and has a nightmare about the murdered lieutenant and Joran. Upon awakening, she is summoned to the site of another murder, this time of Greta Vanderweg, a science officer. Similarly to Ilario, she was killed by a tritanium bullet, apparently fired at close range, leaving no powder burns. Sisko assigns Ezri to assist Odo with her forensic psychology training. Later, at Quark's, O'Brien and Bashir are discussing the killer's odd choice of weapon. Davy Crockett's attachment to a particular weapon comes up, and, as Bashir tells an old story about Davy Crockett using frying pans to perform a trick shot, the Chief has an epiphany about how the killer has fired from close range without leaving powder burns. Quickly arranging a demonstration, O'Brien shows how a micro-transporter could be attached to the muzzle of a TR-116 rifle to beam the bullet close to the target, where it would exit with the same kinetic energy. An exographic targeting sensor could be used to scan through bulkheads, meaning the killer could be firing from anywhere on the station, at anyone. Unfortunately, the micro-transporter does not leave enough of a transporter trace to track. thumb|left|150px|Ezri summons Joran's memories Ezri redoubles her efforts to find a connection between the two murder victims, but gets nowhere. Hoping to draw on the memories of Joran, she performs the Trill Rite of Emergence to extract and personify him. Joran encourages her to think like a killer, disturbing her deeply. In Quark's, Ezri nearly stabs a man, thinking he's the murderer. It turns out the man (Ensign Bertram) was being pursued by security for accessing the TR-116 replicator pattern. However, he was on Bajor at the time of the first murder, ruling him out as a suspect. Sisko almost takes Ezri off the case, but gives her another chance. Ezri attempts to reverse the ritual and rebury Joran's memories, but is interrupted by news of another murder. Zim Brott, a Bolian petty officer, has been found dead, by the same method. While searching the latest victim's quarters for clues, Ezri realizes the only commonality between the victims is pictures of laughing people in their quarters. She suspects a Vulcan is behind the murders, reasoning that a Vulcan, sufficiently traumatized, might see the pictures as an unbearable, frozen display of emotion. She comes up with a short list of suspects who fit what she has deduced. On her way to review her list and shorten it further, she meets a Vulcan who seems to fit the killer's profile in a turbolift. Checking his personnel file, she discovers his name is Chu'lak, and he has indeed suffered a recent emotional trauma. Using the TR-116 and exographic scanner, she observes Chu'lak looking at her personnel file, then retrieving a TR-116 rifle and exographic scanner, and aiming at her. Although Joran Dax encourages her to kill the Vulcan, she shoots him non-lethally, and rushes to his quarters, capturing him. When Ezri asks Chu'lak why he committed these acts, he replies "because logic demanded it." Finally, having solved the murders and come to terms with her memories of Joran, she successfully returns him to his normal place among her memories of Dax's previous hosts. Background Information * The working title of this episode was The Killer in Dax * Early in the episode, Ilario tells Dax that she's very beautiful, to which she responds "And you're very drunk". He then says "But in the morning, I'll be sober - and you'll still be beautiful." This is probably a reference to the oft-quoted Winston Churchill, who is responsible for a famous quote (there are many versions of it), in which a female socialite tells him that he is drunk. His response is something along the lines of "Yes, but you are ugly. And tomorrow morning, I will be sober." * Ezri Dax refers to Hector Alario as ensign when they are leaving Quark's bar even though Bashir says he's a lieutenant and he wears the rank insignia of lieutenant JG. However, she doesn't specifically call him an Ensign. She comments that she has escorted many drunken ensigns to their quarters in the past and Alario is a junior officer. Links and References Guest Stars *Art Chudabala as Hector Ilario *Marty Rackham as Chu'lak *Leigh J. McCloskey as Joran Dax Uncredited Co-Stars *Johnny Martin as Ensign Bertram *Amy Kate Connolly as a command division officer *Chris Kelly as Zim Brott **unknown actress as Greta Vanderweg References Battle of Ricktor Prime; ''Grissom'', USS; Hammer, Mike; forensic psychology; melon; mythology; TR-116 rifle; photography; Rackham, Martin; Saurian brandy; Stone, Jason; ''Strata'', USS; ''Truman'', USS; Vulcan |next= }} Category:DS9 episodes de:Freies Schußfeld es:Field of Fire nl:Field of Fire